Foreword to the special issue on the ITACA strong motion database

The Special Issue of the Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering devoted to the new Italian strong motion database ITACA (ITalian ACelerometric Archive) is introduced in this foreword. An overview of the papers published in this issue is presented, providing an idea of the number of problems encountered in the compilation of a database as rich of information as ITACA, of the solutions adopted and of the possible research and practical applications. Most of the contents, though specifically addressed to ITACA and to its accelerograms, can be usefully thought of as an exemplification of approaches and methods that can be used for, and extended to, similar databases in other countries.